Theguardian.com, By: Glen Greenwald, 10/25/2013

The most under-discussed aspect of the NSA story has long been its international scope. That all changed this week as both Germany and France exploded with anger over new revelations about pervasive NSA surveillance on their population and democratically elected leaders.

As was true for Brazil previously, reports about surveillance aimed at leaders are receiving most of the media attention, but what really originally drove the story there were revelations that the NSA is bulk-spying on millions and millions of innocent citizens in all of those nations. The favorite cry of US government apologists -–everyone spies! – falls impotent in the face of this sort of ubiquitous, suspicionless spying that is the sole province of the US and its four English-speaking surveillance allies (the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

By: RT.com, 10/17/2013

A lobbying group for major US manufacturers has violated Washington state campaign finance law while opposing a ballot initiative that would require labeling genetically-modified foods, according to a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general Wednesday. The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) ran afoul of state law in collecting and spending $7.2 million against ballot initiative 522 - which voters will consider in November - while not disclosing the individual donors funneling contributions to the organization, alleged State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

"Truly fair elections demand all sides follow the rules by disclosing who their donors are and how much they are spending to advocate their views," Ferguson said in a statement. The measure would require the proper labeling of goods which contain ingredients with genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), as well as the labeling of seeds and seed products containing GMOs sold in the state.

For more on this story visit www.rt.com

By: RT.com, 10/24/2013

Los Angeles is considering a ban on the cultivation, sale and distribution of genetically modified organisms, which would make the city the largest GMO-free zone in the US. Los Angeles City Councilmen Paul Koretz and Mitch O’Farrell introduced Friday a motion to curb growth and proliferation of GMO seeds and plants within the city.

The councilmen said the proposal aims to protect local gardens and city-grown food from future contamination from GMO seeds. The motion would not impact the sale of food containing GMO ingredients, however. GMO seeds are mostly used only by large-scale farming operations, of which none exists in Los Angeles city.

For more on this story visit www.rt.com

By: Stefania Maurizi, 10/24/2013

Sarah Harrison? "She deserves massive credit - much more than she's gotten. So impressed by her bravery". These few characters were tweeted a few days ago by Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who broke the first stories about the U.S. National Security Agency's global spying program based on Snowden files.

Over the last three years she has kept a very low profile, as have all WikiLeaks' employees, but when on the 23rd of June Sarah Harrison landed in Moscow with Edward Snowden who had fled Hong Kong seeking political asylum, she found herself under the spotlight. Suddenly the international media started wondering about her. A mystery blonde, a Mata Hari, a journalist, a lawyer, one of Julian Assange's girlfriends? Who is Sarah Harrison, really?

AFP Photo / Frederick FlorinAFP Photo / Frederick Florin

From RT.,com – October 23, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/q3l5dhf

The European Parliament voted Wednesday for US access to the global financial database held by a Belgian company to be suspended because of concerns that the US is snooping on the database for financial gain rather than just to combat terrorism.

The Strasbourg based parliament voted 280 in favor, with 254 against, with 30 abstentions, and called for a suspension of US access until a full enquiry clarifies the situation.

“We need full transparency, especially with all the NSA revelations. Europe cannot accept that the data of private citizens is being accessed without anyone knowing about it”, Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberals in the European Parliament, told Reuters.

EU lawmakers are concerned that the US is covertly using information from the SWIFT database following leaked US documents aired by Brazil’s biggest television network Globo, which indicated that the US has secretly tapped into SWIFT.